Chandrayaan 3’s rigorous Moon landing approach reminds us of the testing regime key to future global success in space

The Chandrayaan 3 lander Vikram on the Moon, imaged by the mission’s rover Pragyan on August 30, 2023. Image: ISROOn August 23, 2023 at 12:33 UTC, India’s robotic Chandrayaan 3 robotic lander completed the 19 minutes of its nerve-wracking autonomous descent to the Moon. In one piece and upright, it now lay near the lunar south pole at the coordinates 69.37°S, 32.32°E. The triumphant touchdown made India only the fourth nation to achieve the feat of a soft lunar landing, following the former Soviet Union, the US, and China. Success wasn’t a given, especially considering that four out of the previous five lunar landing attempts had failed: namely the Israel-based SpaceIL’s Beresheet craft, India’s own Chandrayaan 2 lander, private Japanese firm ispace’s Hakuto-R, and Russia’s Luna 25.Launched by ISRO about four years after Chandrayaan 2’s crash on the Moon, Chandrayaan 3 saw the agency pursue and clinch its goal with a completely different approach. “Instead of a success-based design,…